Baltimore Aquarium

This past week I went to the Baltimore Aquarium over at Maryland's Inner Harbor and I wanted to share a glimpse of some of the photos I took there. If you're interested in going it's cheaper after 5pm on the weekdays ($12) and the parking garage had cost us over $20 (I believe there is cheaper parking available if you go to the Aquariums webpage). It was pretty busy when we went (the dolphin show got cancelled that day too) but you basically wait in line to purchase your ticket/s and then you have to wait in another line before they call your tickets group number outside the building.

Click to enlarge

I realize these thumbnails are on the small side, but if there's any image you'd like to see up-close just leave me a comment below describing which image/s you'd like to see and I'll add it onto this post.

Sweet Baked Swai - Recipe

I figured it was only a matter of time before I posted up a fish recipe on here (no I won't be cooking up my pet fish, sillies) and I happened to come across some frozen fillets of Swai (at Target of all places). Personally I had never heard of Swai before this week and I had no clue what it would even taste like, but it really didn't taste like anything as it's just a basic white meat type fish much like cod or catfish (fairly inexpensive), although not fishy and hence very mild in terms of flavor (You could probably season this any way you'd like. I think next time I'm going to try combining a little sriracha and sweet chili sauce together to make this, yum). The fish are from Vietnam and apparently Vietnamese prefer a similar fish called Basa (the two are almost commonly mistaken for one another), and Vietnam sends the least desired swai to be consumed in US (gee, middle class fish status eh??). Thus, swai will generally always be found frozen in the US and not fresh (which is a little disappointing since.. I actually liked it). I got this original recipe concept off of AllRecipes but I did make a few changes to my recipe here (since I can't eat citrus).

Swai served with a side of butternut squash.

4 Fillets - Swai
1/4 Cup - Honey
3 Tbsp - Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp - Olive Oil
2 Tbsp - Dijon Mustard
2 Pinches - Himalayan Pink Salt, fine ground (or Sea Salt)
2 Pinches - Chinese Ginger, ground
1 Pinch - Black Pepper, ground *Optional*

Preheat oven to 425F (220C). Mix all the ingredients together except for the swai in a bowl. Place each fillet on a separate sheet of aluminum foil. Use up half of the mixture in total to drizzle over each fillet. Gently wrap the foil around each coated fillet, crimping the foil together over the top to seal in the fillet. Bake fillets in the preheated oven until fish flakes easily with a fork, around 15 minutes. Remove fillet from the foil, place on a serving plate, and top fillets with the leftover mixture.

Believe it or not, Swai are part of the fish keeping community!

I also did this post so I could share with you the new blog I started this year on eating healthy, click Real Phat to check it out, thanks everyone!